S1E4: Emily Kristen Morris
In this episode, Hayley and Amy speak with actor, singer, voice teacher, and social media content creator Emily Kristen Morris. Emily gives us a backstage peek at standby life, and we discuss imposter syndrome, women supporting women, and the need for diversity in positions of power. Scroll down for episode notes and transcript!
Episode Notes
Guest: Emily Kristen Morris
Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews
Music: Chloe Geller
Episode Resources:
Broadway National Tour of Wicked
Backstage: Swing, Standby, Understudy: What You Need to Know
Broadway League: The Demographics of the Broadway Audience
Backstage: Joining Actors’ Equity is About to Get Easier
Update: Emily made her onstage debut as Elphaba in October 2022! Congratulations!
Guest Bio
Emily Kristen Morris (she/her) is an NYC-based actor, singer, dancer, certified vocal instructor, and popular online content creator with more than 1.5 million followers on TikTok. Emily has performed across the nation and internationally, and she is currently the Elphaba standby on the Broadway national tour of Wicked. Her past theatre credits include: Bea in the national tour of Something Rotten, White Plains Performing Arts Center (Daisy in Side Show), The Rev (Sophie in Mamma Mia), Cape Playhouse, the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra (Nellie in South Pacific in concert), Gateway Playhouse, Weston Playhouse, and New York Musical Theatre Festival.
Emily has performed as a solo vocalist with symphony orchestras, including the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in China and the Norwalk Symphony. Her voice is also featured on Joey Contreras’ new album “In Pieces.” On TikTok, Emily is popular for her voice teaching videos, singing covers, and vocal coach reacts videos. When she's not performing, Emily runs her highly sought-after voice studio, EKM Vocal Studio, where she teaches lessons, masterclasses, and workshops to passionate singers both virtually and in-person in NYC. Emily is certified through the Institute For Vocal Advancement (IVA) and received her BFA in musical theatre from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).
Find Emily Online:
Website: www.emilykristenmorris.com
Follow Emily on TikTok and Instagram!
Thanks for listening!
Who do you want to hear from next on the Women & Theatre Podcast? Nominate someone here.
The Women & Theatre Podcast is created and produced by Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews. Please like, comment, subscribe, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you for listening!
Episode Transcript
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to the Women & Theatre Podcast! We're your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews. Grab a cup of coffee and join us as we explore the experiences of women and nonbinary people in the theatre industry.
Hayley: On the pod, we interview people from different backgrounds with varying levels of industry experience and professional roles.
Amy: Our goal is to build community, identify the unique benefits that women and nonbinary folks bring to theatrical spaces, and pool our collective wisdom to break down the barriers we continue to face.
Amy: In today's episode, we speak with Emily Kristen Morris, a New York City-based actor, singer, voice teacher, and social media content creator with more than one and a half million followers on TikTok! Currently, Emily is the Elphaba standby on the Broadway National Tour of Wicked. Emily has performed across the nation and internationally in musicals and as a solo vocalist with symphony orchestras. She also runs her world-renowned voice studio EKM Vocal Studio and teaches passionate singers both virtually and in person.
Amy: We are here with the amazing Emily Kristen Morris. Please introduce yourself, share your pronouns, and tell us a little bit about what you do in theatre.
Emily: I'm Emily Kristen Morris. My pronouns are she/her. I am a theatre artist. I'm also, I'm a voice teacher. I'm also a social media content creator. We all are so multifaceted at this point. I feel like it used to be, you know, “I'm an actor” and that was it, or, you know, whatever. And now since the pandemic, I feel like everybody has reached their hands into new things, and it's actually really only a good thing. So those are all my hats.
I'm an actress, first and foremost. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, doing theatre there. And then I went to school in Cincinnati, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and got my BFA in musical theater and moved to the big bad city, to New York and have been there sort of on and off since graduating. And have been a babysitter, I've been a waiter. I've also done lots of regional theater gigs, and I've done a national tour. And currently, I'm on the national tour of Wicked as the Elphaba standby.
Hayley: Yay!
Amy: So thrilled for you. So good!
Emily: Yeah, totally insane. That started two months ago now, I guess. So that's still pretty new. I'm also a voice teacher, so I started teaching voice in, I guess, 2018. I was on the national tour of Something Rotten, and I was playing Bea. She sings this big song and it's very belty and powerful, and lots of young women in particular would meet me at the stage door and DM me and ask me questions about this role, like “How do I warm up for it?” and “What was the audition process like?” And it sort of got me thinking, okay, well, I've always wanted to teach. Maybe this is a start for that.
I started very casually teaching during tour, and then grew to just love it so so much and decided to get certified through the Institute for Vocal Advancement and went through that whole process and have been teaching since. And that was sort of like the side gig while I was auditioning and performing. And then COVID hit and, you know, that swapped, right? So all of a sudden, no performing in sight. We left New York the instant it started getting scary. We were one of the first ones because my fiancé Karl is diabetic, and his parents were like, “You cannot be in New York for this.” And so we packed up and left and lived for six months in his family's makeshift summer cabin in the woods in northern Minnesota.
Hayley: Wow. What was that like?
Emily: Well, it was crazy ‘cause it was Minnesota and it was March, so it was still like winter winter. So they were like, “Go to the cabin, just go isolate.” I was like, “All right, fine. Two weeks, we'll be back to New York.” Obviously that didn't happen. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna double down on teaching. And my voice teacher, Chelsea Wilson, who's the best, had just joined TikTok. And she was like, “Emily, there's this thing. It's this great place to learn things.” And she said, “I've been, you know, making little videos as a voice teacher and getting new students this way.” And I was like, “Oh my gosh, how cool. I'm trying to build my business.”
So I joined TikTok and just started, you know, “Tips and tricks to hit this high note in this song” or whatever. And then that sort of blew up, and it's like totally built my business. Lots of new students have come to me that way and - yeah, it got to a point where I didn't have enough hours in the day to teach the amount of people wanting lessons, and so I've started hiring on associate teachers. So now I have a whole studio, this business, with five associate teachers and, so that's sort of…(laughs)
Hayley: It's amazing.
Amy: That is so cool, Emily.
Emily: Yeah! So that's what I'm doing when I'm not on stage.
Hayley: Emily, can you tell us a little bit about what the process has been like learning Elphaba?
Emily: Yes! I'll tell you the story of how it all came to be first.
Hayley: Yeah, please,
Emily: ‘Cause it is sort of one of those, like, magical theatre stories that you think aren't gonna happen to you. And then it did. To be honest, didn't see myself as an Elphaba for many, many years. Growing up with blonde, curly hair - you know, people just didn't see me that way. I didn't see myself that way. It was never a role I necessarily, like, grew up singing in a way that a lot of Elphabas do. But I'd always wanted to get in for Wicked, and I just couldn't get in the room.
And then this past April, I was doing a production of Side Show, and it was being done in White Plains, which is right outside of New York City, and randomly, the Broadway music director in New York of Wicked came to the show. Because he loves Side Show and Side Show never gets done, and he just wanted to see the show.
Hayley: Wow.
Emily: And then the next morning, I woke up with an audition for Elphaba.
Amy: That's amazing.
Emily: It feels like those stories that you hear, you know, where you're like, “That'll never happen to me.” These big opportunities we get handed, it's just so rare that it's from an audition or a tape, it's always from, like, someone in your life resurfacing, or someone who knows you through somebody else.
So I made a tape for Elphaba standby, and then I didn't hear anything. And then, I was actually set to do a different tour that was gonna go out this fall. And I was very excited about that and, you know, that was the plan. And then, I get an email, like truly out of the blue, from the casting team that literally just said, “Hi, What is Emily's interest and availability in playing Elphaba standby on tour?” (all laugh) What? Like, this doesn't happen, right? This doesn't happen. So I was like, “Yeah, I'm interested and available.” (Amy and Hayley laugh) And then I had two more auditions, and then… Yeah. Within like two weeks, I was doing this and so that all happened, like, really quickly.
And arriving here, it all felt like such a whirlwind. I had this just huge, huge dose of imposter syndrome because I have this idea in my head that, like, most Elphabas look a certain way and they grow up singing it and they know it. And that wasn't me. So I arrived and had to, like, shake that off as quickly as I could and just get into it.
But learning the role, they call it Elphaba Bootcamp. They give you four weeks, which is really great. They give you some time. You get as much rehearsal as they can give you and a lot of it is just sitting, watching, and learning. And because it's such a long running show and it's such a sort of set piece, everything is blocked down to the detail. And I've learned shows that way, but I'd never joined a show that was already running, and I'd never joined a show on this scale. So that was a big learning curve, learning the show by numbers,
Hayley: When you say “by numbers,” just for our listeners who don't know what that means, can you…?
Emily: Yes, yes. So, you know, in most professional productions of musical theatre, you're gonna have a number line at the end of the stage. And zero is center and then you have 1, 2, 3 on either side. It's helpful especially for, like, formations for dance numbers. You know, you and your partner opposite the stage are both on 8, so that you're actually even, you know, things like that.
But when you have a show that's been running for lots of years and there are lots of productions that are replicas of each other across the world, to keep things really, really consistent, everything, everything is set to numbers. So, not only was I trying to learn my lines and trying to figure out who this character was to me and trying to act and sing and dance and all the other things, more than anything, the first few weeks was like, “You're on stage left 4 on the seam for that line, and then you need to go over to…”, you know what I mean?
Hayley: Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's crazy, like, in terms of trying to like get embodied in the role.
Emily: You know, this just speaks to how new I am to all of this, but it does feel very backwards because, like, when you do a regional show that isn't a replica of something, when you're creating something new - the first rehearsal, the director's like, “And hey, on that verse, maybe wander to the left,” and then on the next rehearsal, it's like, “Okay, I loved to the left. Why don't you hit 8?” And then the next rehearsal, it's like, “Okay, hit 8, and I liked what you did with your hand on that one gesture. Why don't you do that?” And you sort of build it.
Here, it was like, “Okay, so you gotta grab your bag and you have to put it on your left shoulder. And then you have to get the purse from the bag, and you have to make sure that you have the right pen. Cause it's not the blue pen, it's the right - it's the left pen. And then you have to get the pen and you have to write the note, and then you have to put it back in the bag and put it over your right shoulder so that the quick change can happen. And then you need to go to stage left and then you need to get off stage right.” You know what I mean?
Hayley: And if you move out of the way, something from the flies is gonna hit you in the head.
Amy: Right. Well, and then figuring out within that, like, “Okay, these are the physical things I'm doing. Why is the character doing them?”
Emily: Yeah, yeah. Like who this is.
Amy: Yeah. That's hard.
Emily: And that's your job, you know, as an actor. But it was definitely like, I'm so used to doing it the other way around.
Hayley: Right. It is your job, and also, like, if you're used to working with a director and creating that together, compared to just having somebody walk you through the motions, and then you're like, “I have to figure out literally everything, like not even someone to bounce ideas off of about why I might be making this movement or this choice.”
Emily: I'm very inquisitive. That's who I've always been. And like, every once in a while, you know, I would ask those questions, and they do have the answers. Which is so great. But yeah. It's been a really unique process. And then of course, being a standby is totally new to me. I've understudied, but it's different. It's totally different. So that's been a learning curve, too. I'm really grateful to be here, but it's also, like, one of the hardest things I've ever done.
Hayley: Yeah.
Amy: Yeah. Can you talk a bit for listeners who may not be aware of what a standby is and does?
Emily: Yes, yes. So most people, you know, you've heard of an understudy. Usually, an understudy is somebody in the ensemble who understudies a leading role. So then, when that leading role goes out because they're sick or they're taking a vacation or they need a break or whatever, that ensemble member gets bumped up to the lead, and then an offstage, what we call “swing”, gets moved into that ensemble track.
What a standby does is a standby is actually not onstage at all. A standby is offstage, ready at any moment to hop in. Typically, it's saved for those roles in musical theatre that are just really demanding. Where they just want someone, like, totally rested and ready, for these roles that are like, they carry the show.
It's different than an alternate. An alternate is like a standby offstage, but has set dates they go on every week, so alternates often will take like, matinee performances. Elphaba’s a standby. So I never know when I'm gonna go onstage. People ask me - I don't know. My mom wants to know - I don't know. Grandma wants to know - I don't know. I don't have an answer for you.
Hayley: Right, right. Do you deal with anxiety around that?
Emily: Totally.
Hayley: And what do you do to cope with that?
Emily: You know, disclaimer: I haven't been on yet. I've been here a month. I have a hunch it's coming soon, but I haven't been on yet. Our incredible lead alphabet, Lissa [deGuzman] is, she's so solid. There's been not one moment where I'm like, “Ooh, I might have to go on.” Like, no, she's just incredibly solid. She's one of those absolute beasts. I don't know if that would be me. I mean, that's pretty amazing.
So I haven't been on yet. And you know, the thing that goes through your head a lot as a standby, and as a swing too, is the fear of the mid-show swing-on, which happens. They call it a “witch switch” here.
Hayley: I've never heard that term before. That's funny.
Amy: That's so funny.
Emily: Yeah, and it happens. You roll an ankle or whatever, you know, things happen. So you do have to be backstage every night. Everybody asks, “Are you in full green makeup every night?” No, absolutely not. I'm chilling, I'm reading my book. I'm going through my blocking. I'm singing along sometimes, but I'm definitely not in green. But yeah, you have one ear always on the monitor, you gotta be sort of ready. My job is to be completely and totally, absolutely ready at every given moment. Like, I will have done a complete warmup and I've done my yoga set and I'm ready chomping at the bit backstage every night. Right? That's technically my job. However, I can't live like that, right?
Hayley: No, that's not sustainable for any human.
Emily: Right. And so what I've told myself is “You just have to be mentally there, right?” And that's the biggest key. Yeah, I absolutely do a warmup, but there's no part of me that goes to the show every night and is like, “Maybe it's today!” Like, no, I can't live like that. I am ready if they need me. And I have sort of grappled with the idea that like, it's never gonna be perfect. It never would be anyway, right? But especially in these circumstances, and talk to any swing, standby, they'll tell you the same thing.
You have to get comfortable with the idea that when you go on, you're not gonna have notice, and you have to trust that your body's gonna carry you through. Your voice is gonna carry you through. I have to trust that, especially now, because I know that the first time is gonna feel crazy, right? Like, I'm gonna black out. I'm not gonna remember it. It's gonna be like pure adrenaline, you know? And so you just have to like, get comfortable with the idea that it's just never gonna be perfect. It's gonna be absolutely great, and it's gonna be good enough for the audience, and they're gonna love it no matter what.
Your inner policeman of like, “Oh, I messed that up,” and “Oh, that wasn't right…” It's not worth it, because it's not gonna be perfect, and that's okay. And I've just had to like, ingrain that into myself, because as a singer, an actor primarily, I'm usually playing those big roles and I have time to really finesse them and I get the reps in and you get to a point where you feel really comfortable, and I'm not there. And of course you want it to be amazing, it's Elphaba! And you know, it will be, but I've had to like, really ingrain that mentality into my body. Otherwise, I think I’d go crazy.
Hayley: I think that once you do it, you're gonna have the experience of doing it and then realize like, “Oh, even without the reps, I manage to, like…” I hope that's how you feel when it's done.
Emily: Yeah. And our team here is - I'm so grateful because I really like the people here, the creatives and the people running the show and the people in the cast. I have full faith that I will be so well supported when that moment happens.
Amy: That's so cool. Thank you for sharing all of that with us. It's really fun to get a little backstage look at it.
Hayley: Yeah. I think for our listeners who are just coming up in the industry, it will be very informative and nice to hear that imposter syndrome is normal, and like all of these things that are happening.
Amy: Yeah, absolutely. In all of your creative work, is there a creative mission that you have that drives you forward on your path?
Emily: Ooh. I have a mission statement as a teacher, certainly. You know, I've written that up for the website. But I haven't done much thinking in terms of like, a mission statement for me as an artist. That's a really cool question.
As a teacher, what I really value about our studio and, and frankly, the training we've all gotten through the Institute for Vocal Advancement - I think a lot of performers in general, we get very stuck in what we think, you know, is the right way, what sounds good. And so much of being an artist is actually putting that aside and figuring out what is authentic and feels good to you. And what we value a lot at EKM Vocal Studio is, of course with the foundation of vocal technique and health and all of that, but how do we get you to find something that feels really authentic and you, and not just a replica of what you think your voice should sound like, or what you think Broadway singers sound like? I think we're moving past that as an industry too. We're hearing really different sounds and seeing really different types of performers and actors.
I definitely value the approach of you know, what's innate in you? And then draw from there. ‘Cause otherwise you're always gonna feel off, right? And then you start feeling like, “Am I just replicating somebody else?” Which, to a certain extent, you are. But how do you do it from an inside out? How do you check in with who you are and what you bring to the table? That's certainly part of a mission statement if there was one.
Hayley: Yeah. I wanna chat a little bit about womanhood. I'm curious about how womanhood fits into your identity and what it means to you.
Emily: I guess the first thought I have is just that I love being a woman. I know that it comes with its challenges, but I would never, ever, ever want it any other way. Like, I've always actually really loved being a woman.
This theme comes up a lot in Wicked, but I've loved figuring out, especially in my adult life, what womanhood is in relationship to other women. It's so easy in our industry to let competition and comparison just like, steal all the joy. I certainly dealt with that a lot in, like, middle school and high school. And then I - in my college years, and then definitely in my post-college years, I got to a point where I really learned to sort of let that go.
I've gotten to a point where like, female friendship and the women in my life who are also in this career of musical theatre, these women who I love, like, every success they have is my success. I genuinely feel that way now. I feel like my relationship to other women has gotten so strong in the last 10 years. I remember being like, 12 or 13, and having that feeling of like, “Every woman in this room that I'm auditioning with is my competition,” and that has totally shifted for the better. I love women.
Hayley: Yeah.
Amy: So do we!
Hayley: Yay!
Emily: I really do!
Amy: That's what it comes down to.
Emily: It's cool being in situations like being an understudy, being a standby, like where you would think that competition is just dripping. That idea of like, the understudy who wants to trip the lead. None of that is present, at least here at Wicked. And frankly, like, I don't think it's really been present in any of the professional theatre I've done. Which is very cool.
And like, the green sisterhood is so real. You get totally ingrained into this huge network of women who have done this thing that we all recognize is just really hard. I've spoken with a lot of past standbys and a lot of past Elphabas and gotten to know the woman I'm covering for really well. And there's this genuine soft place to land for all of us, of like, “How are you doing? Mind, heart, soul. We know what this is and we know it's hard, and how can we support each other?”
Amy: That makes me so happy that that exists. That's wonderful.
Hayley: That warms my whole heart,
Emily: It's pretty cool.
Amy: Can you talk with us about how you feel your gender has benefited you as an artist and the spaces that you're in? And then on the flip side, if there are particular limitations that you've had because of your gender?
Emily: My gender identity has always been pretty clear to me. And I think that's such a privilege, because lots of people are grappling with that right now, which is actually only good, right? We're all coming to our own authentic understandings of who we are more and more. There's this myth about being a woman in musical theatre and how much harder it is than being a man. Which is true, you know, it's true. But how do we let that be the truth but not let that tear us down?
I mean, I think the benefit is that you have a huge network of wonderful women. There are more of us than men in this field, and when we lift each other up, it's great. The limitations is that there aren't as many of us in places of power. I can count on one hand how many female directors I've had, female music directors I've had. Female producers? I can't think of any.
Hayley: Mm-hmm.
Emily: And then we get into people of color, right? And that's even less. And there's thankfully been a big push to change all of this, you know, in the last few years. That conversation is obviously getting more and more imminent. But sometimes I get frustrated, ‘cause I feel like it's only happening on, like, the visual level. Like, we're seeing more diverse casts, but then we're not seeing any creative teams that look any different.
Hayley: Say it again. Emily. Yeah.
Amy: Yeah. It feels very performative a lot of the time.
Emily: Yeah. And you know, maybe it just takes time. I don't know. I don't know. But - I'm not a woman of color, but if I was, this would feel even worse. And - I don't know, like, maybe this is just the first step in beginning to give women and minorities more and more opportunities so that they can start climbing the ladder so that they can have these bigger, higher up, larger paying jobs, whatever. But it's all moving kind of slowly, which is annoying.
Amy: Yeah, I hear that.
Emily: We're making some really interesting art, you know, new pieces that are being developed. And we're starting to promote more minority - certainly like, voices and stories about and written by women, people of color. But then they're all produced by white men. So I don't know.
Hayley: Do you know the percentage of audiences that are women for Broadway audiences? It's like 70%. So it's like you have an audience that is 70% women showing up for it. You have actors who are largely made up of, like, a lot of women. And then you have…
Amy: The men in charge. Yeah.
Hayley: Yeah, exactly. That's a big one for me that I wanna see change, is people in power, for sure.
Amy: Absolutely.
Hayley: Speaking of changes in the industry, Emily, if you could think of one change - if you could wave your magic wand - that you wanna make, what would it be?
Emily: Oh god. This conversation, right? I feel like that's probably the biggest one. And I don't have a solution, I really don't. But I have felt for years that the way we deal with casting needs to be dealt with differently, and it already has just because of what's happened with the pandemic. Things are shifting so much.
But being non-union for so long and doing that thing where you wait in line at 4:00 AM and then you're just treated like you don't exist, and then you wait until 4:00 PM for them to tell you “Never mind, go home.” And all the complexities that come with that of, like, well, anybody who can do that probably has money from Mom and Dad because they're not working a day job.
It's so hard to get into this field without a safety net, but I do think that's already changing. I mean, I know lots of people really hate the amount of self tapes we're having to do because they're so easy to ignore and so sometimes you do a lot of work and you film the thing, and then you feel like you're sending it into the void. But I will say that's opening more accessibility than the old method.
Hayley: Yeah. I would say on the flip side though, I think people having to rent studio space for, like, dance auditions and stuff is rough.
Emily: Oh yeah. It's crazy.
Hayley: Yeah. You know what I mean? It's more accessible in the sense that more people can film at home, sure. But it also depends on their living situation.
Emily: And I'm sure this is like an age-old conversation, like I'm sure actors have always had qualms about how this works. Because end of the day, right, supply and demand, like there's just too many of us. I get it. But there just has to be a way to treat us a little bit more humanely. I don't know the solution. I have lots of thoughts about the union and how now that's opened up. I actually think it's mostly good. When we look at the history of unions, gatekeeping unions is never gonna be a good thing.
Amy: Yeah.
Hayley: Totally.
Emily: But that comes with its own complications too. So, to be honest, I think that we're in a huge moment of change. I believe that theatre artists are good people, and I think we're all really, really trying to like, take this as an opportunity to move in better directions. And I think we are, but it's also like growing pains, and…
Amy: Yeah. And it's slow.
Emily: And it's slow, yeah. That is a question I think about a lot, the injustices of a lot of how our industry is run. You know, I think about these things a lot. So, I don't know. I think we're in a moment of change.
Hayley: I think a lot of people wanna see it change, which gives me hope. Conversations that we've been having. And there are some women who are starting to gain more power and more opportunities to make that change. And so I hope that, I hope that those doors are gonna keep opening.
Emily: I have no doubt, the more women in power we can get, the better this will be.
Amy: Absolutely.
Hayley: We know how to run a good ship.
Amy: We do. And the more we keep having these conversations and raising these issues and bringing more people into the conversation - I think no single one of us has the answers to these questions, but if we get all of our combined brilliance, I do think we'll figure it out. I do think we can figure out a better way.
Emily: Yeah. I think also, like, utilizing the younger generations. As somebody who's on social media, and in particular TikTok, I think that a lot of theatre doesn't get how influential that can be. I have seen how it can change lives, I've seen how it can build businesses, I've seen how it can rise up new shows. I think that marketing probably needs to really shift too, like the way we think about marketing. I think that there's a really big opportunity to use social media in a whole new way that a lot of old producers just aren't thinking about but could be. So I think about that too.
Hayley: Totally.
Amy: Yeah. I do have one last question, which is what are you most proud of in your life?
Emily: Aw. At this moment, I have a lot to be grateful for. I've been, like, kind of a sappy girl. (laughs)
Hayley: Be a sappy girly, Emily. Like, just go for it.
Emily: This past year, but like especially the last few months, I just feel that I have a lot to be grateful for. The pandemic was really hard and continues to be really, really challenging. But I, you know, I've been lucky to have a lot of good come out of it. And yeah, I mean, in the past few months, this Wicked thing happened, and my business is really growing, and I got engaged.
Hayley: Yay!
Emily: Life has its ups and downs, but right now, I'm feeling very lucky and grateful and proud of where life is taking me at the moment. I think it's easy to like, talk about the hard times. It's harder to sort of acknowledge when you're in one of those moments of like, “Hey, pat yourself on the back!” Like, some of your hard work is paying off. And you know, it won't be like this always, and not that it's perfect right now, but there will be downs and ups. But it's actually kind of important to put a stamp on, like, those moments in life that feel like things are in alignment, and you can sort of refer back to them and yeah, and take pride in them.
Hayley: And like, celebrate your wins. So many of us as women and also as people in this business are like type A or like perfectionist-y type people who are trained to focus on what's wrong with stuff. But yeah, I think celebrating the wins, even the small ones, is really helpful in having a sustainable career and life.
Emily: Yes. And that's huge too. Like how do you get this feeling of fulfillment - or not even fulfillment, but just contentment - in yourself without relying on the external successes? And I don't have an answer, but how do you make sure that your happiness isn't tied into those external successes? That's a huge life lesson we're all trying to figure out. But yeah, I'm very grateful for this moment in time, for sure.
Hayley: We're really grateful for you and your time, Emily.
Amy: We are, thank you so much!
Hayley: Thank you for joining us today.
Emily: I'm so grateful to be here.
Amy: It's such a joy to talk with you.
Emily: I'm so excited and proud of you guys and what you're building. I could see that maybe some positive change could come out of these conversations.
Amy: Here's hoping! We're working hard on it.
Hayley: We really hope so.
(Music)
Hayley: Thank you for listening to the Women & Theatre Podcast. We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: And Amy Andrews. If you like what you heard, subscribe and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen.
Hayley: You can also follow us on social @womenandtheatreproject to make sure you never miss an episode.
Amy: The music for this show is written by talented Women & Theatre community member Chloe Geller.
Hayley: Thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Amy: Bye!
